英文摘要 |
The national health surveys launched by the French Royal Society of Medicine in 1774, characterize the formation of France as a country of public hygiene. By analyzing the archives of the French Royal Society of Medicine, this paper outlines the national health surveys conducted by this institution and further studies the principle of internal organization of this unified activity of research. This paper finds that the relationship between people and their environment was closely linked together in the research performed by the French Royal Society of Medicine. The environment was deemed as a direct factor to human health. What the national health surveys highlighted was a new mission with which the Society of Medicine was endowed: knowing and improving the environment, thus improving the quality of human health. Among all factors affecting human health, the effect of air caught especially the most attention. The Society of Medicine set cordon through the sense of smell, explored any possible place at which harmful gas would appear, and tried to adopt scientific methods to grasp the mechanism of its generation. They investigated the impact on human body caused by harmful gas generated from swamps, rivers, excreta disposal sites, cemeteries, and the crowds. They were startled to realize that human beings seemed to have fallen unconsciously into the deadly trap of poison gas. The alarm against the odor was therefore awakened. |